Hundreds of creative freelancers from across Bath and the West of England will get support under a new £1m scheme that will also give young people work opportunities in the sector alongside access to cultural experiences.
Bath Spa University and the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) have secured funding for Culture West, a two-year region-wide programme which will support and provide work for 425 freelancers as well as engaging more than 109,000 people in arts and cultural experiences with live audiences of more than 270,000.
The programme, designed to give every child and young person in the region access to a cultural experience each year, will also commission two new festivals.
Culture West has been co-created with more than 150 regionally-based creative and cultural organisations, creative freelancers, cross-sector partners, including health, education and environment and the region’s four unitary authorities to establish a series of priorities for the region.
Bath Spa University is the only university working with WECA, alongside Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol City, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire councils, on the programme.
It will support the delivery of a new regional creative agency – a network of employers and training providers that will support creatives at every point in their career, increasing opportunities for young people to enter and thrive in the creative sector.
New arts spaces and places will open across Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset through a new arts membership model, including Bath Spa University campus buildings.
A new residency scheme, known as Re-EMERGE, will offer low-income artists and makers residencies at EMERGE, Bath Spa University’s unique multidisciplinary creative practice studio.
The university will also work with freelance artists to support the growth of high-quality workshops and teaching resources for education and schools and will also be pivotal in developing and launching new artist spaces across the Somer Valley region next year, including one in Radstock, which will open in January.
Bath Spa University vice-chancellor Prof Sue Rigby said: “Over the next two years, our shared ambition is to create a step change for the region by increasing access to arts and culture in every place for all communities and creatives.
“Through this, we aim to improve lives, support local economies, help regenerate neighbourhoods and bring people back into work in the creative industries, post-pandemic.
“Thanks to a £1m grant from Arts Council England, added to the £1.5m investment already promised from WECA – plus a further £640,000 from local partners – we have the opportunity to reignite the West’s creative and cultural offering, and it couldn’t come at a more crucial time.”
